A connector has been used for connecting an electronic control system installed in a vehicle such as an automobile with other electronic devices. However, because of ever-increasing multifunctionality and high performance of electronic devices in recent years, the devices themselves have been made smaller and become space-saving, and the number of contact terminals provided in the connector has increased. Conversely, the footprint of connectors mounted on the substrate has been reduced and the contact terminals have become more closely arranged.
Such a connector generally includes a housing, a contact terminal, and a compensation plate (also referred to as a locator or a tine plate). A compensation plate is used for improving alignment accuracy of the leading end of a contact terminal on the substrate side, and it is required for preventing abutment of the leading end of the contact terminal on the substrate, deformation of the contact terminal due to the abutment, and difficulty of insertion of the contact terminal into a through hole, by improving the alignment accuracy when the contact terminal is assembled on the through hole formed in the substrate.
JP-A-2001-143792 discloses a locator for insertion of contact provided to a connector to prevent deformation of the contact. The locator for insertion of contact includes a flat-plate part made of plastic such as PBT (polybutylene terephthalate), and a bending part that is elastically deformable and formed integrally with the flat-plate part. The connector includes an insulator mounted on a substrate such as a print circuit board and a plurality of electrically conductive contacts assembled with the insulator. The locator is positioned between a wall of the insulator and the substrate, and functions to prevent deformation of a terminal part while connected to the substrate and to suppress occurrence of solder cracking.
JP-A-10-154537 discloses a board-attached type connector. The board-attached type connector includes an insulating housing made of plastic such as PBT entirely formed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, a plurality of arrays of male contacts fixed to a back wall of the insulating housing, and a tine plate. Leg parts, extending from the back wall of the insulating housing of the contact externally backward, bending in the middle portion and extending toward the substrate, are aligned by the tine plate.
JP-A-2000-215951 discloses a board-mounting type connector. The board-mounting type connector includes a first connector part and a second connector part. The first connector part includes a first insulating housing and a plurality of first contacts that are press-fitted and fixed into the first housing. The first contacts include press-fit parts press-fitted into the circuit board. Above each of the press-fit parts, a pressed-shoulder part to be collectively pressed by a press jig when the press-fit parts are press-fitted and fixed to the circuit board is formed. The pressed-shoulder part of the first contact is inserted into an opening of the tine plate, and aligns the press-fit parts by the tine plate when the press-fit part is press-fitted and fixed to the circuit board.
The connectors or the like disclosed in JP-A-2001-143792, JP-A-10-154537, and JP-A-2000-215951 require a compensation plate such as a locator or a tine plate to align the contacts when assembling or mounting so that alignment accuracy of the contacts is improved. However, there is a problem that the number of parts increases when the compensation plate is used in the connector. In addition, increase in the number of parts leads to an increase in assembly man-hours, and the footprint of parts on the substrate becomes large, so that downsizing and space-saving of the connector may not be achieved. If the compensation plate is used, the compensation plate and the contact may contact each other when the connector oscillates, so that shavings may be generated to cause trouble in the connector and other devices. Additionally, if temperature change is caused in the device when the contact is attached to the substrate by soldering, stress load may be applied to the soldered portion due to difference between linear expansion coefficients of the compensation plate and the substrate, and cracks may occur in the solder to cause trouble in the connection between the contact and the substrate.